Nitrates high

[supervdl]

Here is the thread to my 210 gal mixed reef. I have notoriously high nitrates and although the tank is doing surprisingly well, I would like to reduce the nitrates drastically.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=13220324#post13220324


What have other people used out there? Any feedback on own experience? Denitrator? Absorber media? Vodka? What worked and what didn't?

Thanks.

[andrewkw]

try doing larger water changes 20% is not enough to drastically reduce nitrates.

[supervdl]

I am just afraid I would stress out my livestock with larger water changes.

[seaguy7]

I read through your other thread. Nice looking setup. It seems you have been wrestling with nitrates and phosphates for a long time (two phosphate reactors?)

I have never seen that skimmer before and as others pointed out, that could be the problem. I think the other likely candidate is that you have so much rock and coral in your tank, your water volume is far less than the 210 gals and you have a heavy bio load with that many large fish. Not sure that you want do to anything about that so getting a higher capacity skimmer is probably your best bet.

[prickles]

I have had good luck with the denitrators that you feed vodka into. I had a tank that ran at 20 nitrate no matter what I did. I added the denitrator and made no other changes. Now it runs at 0. I am amazed the difference in the color of the corals. Some zoos that were brown are now bright green and others bright blue and orange.

[Michael]

superb tank mate, however if you can get a tank up to that standard then the trates cant be too much to worry about for you, its a lovevly set up, heres randys views on nitrate, good luck, just keep going we d all love a tank like yours, heres that link

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/august2003/chem.htm

[supervdl]

What brand is the denitrator with the vodka dosing?

[crvz]

there are a number of crafty solutions to nitrates, but I've only ever done water changes. As long as the temp and salinity match (and pH is pretty close), you can do rather large water changes without any damage.